The lifestyle habits of bees centre on living in colonies with a division of labour and on collecting nectar and building nests

Bees are typical social insects; a colony is often made up of thousands upon thousands of individuals living together in one hive, with a clear division of labour and mutual dependence. A colony consists of three kinds of members - the queen bee, worker bees and drones - and none can be done without. The strength of a colony also directly determines its performance in collecting nectar and pollinating.

In terms of the division of labour, the queen bee devotes herself to laying eggs and is the core of colony reproduction; the main task of the drones is to mate with the queen; almost all other affairs are undertaken by the worker bees, including gathering flowers and making honey, feeding the larvae, building the comb, regulating the hive temperature and guarding the hive entrance. Worker bees also use specific dance movements to tell their companions the direction and distance of a nectar source, guiding the colony to forage efficiently.

Bees feed on nectar and pollen, carrying the nectar back to the hive and making it into honey for storage, as rations for rainy weather and the winter. While collecting nectar they also pollinate crops; the flowering and fruit set of crops such as longan, lychee and rapeseed cannot do without the help of bee colonies, so bees are very important to agricultural production.

In terms of lifestyle habits, bees like a quiet environment sheltered from the wind and facing the sun. They are frequently active during the flowering period, and when nectar sources are scarce or the temperature is rather low their activity decreases, relying on huddling together as a group and on stored honey to survive. It should be noted that bees are very sensitive to pesticides; long-term exposure to low doses of pesticides damages the nervous system and affects nectar collection and homing. When there are too few nectar plants nearby, colonies are also prone to going hungry. Beekeepers should choose places with abundant nectar sources and far from spraying areas to keep their bees, and promptly deal with swarming when the colony grows strong, so that the colony can be raised strong and stable.